1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protector for armoring a wire harness to be laid on the automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is a practice to pass a wire harness, to be laid on the automobile, through a resin-molded protector in a required wire-laying area in order to achieve route regulation and enhanced protection of significant wires. The protector has a protector body in a trough form that is lock-joined with a lid for closing an upper opening of the protector body after passing an electric-wire group of wire harness through the protector body (see JP-A-6-86426).
The lid, in many cases, is integrally formed with the protector body through a thin-walled hinge at an upper end of one sidewall of the protector body. However, where the protector body is bent, the lid must be formed split. Because of the reasons of complicated formation, it is often a case to form a protector body 1 and a lid 2 separately so that a wire harness can be passed through the protector body 1 and then covered with the lid 2 thereby making a lock joining, as shown in FIG. 6. Meanwhile, the lid 2, a separate member, frequently is projected with a vehicle-fixing bracket 3 opened with a bolt hole 3a for fixing the protector on a fixed member, such as a vehicle body panel.
Lock parts are provided on the protector body 1 and lid 2 made separate as in the above. Lock-claw engaging frames 1c project with a required spacing along outer-surface upper ends of both sidewalls 1a, 1b of the protector body 1 while lock pieces 2b, having lock claws 2a projecting down, project at widthwise both ends S1, S2 of the lid 2.
In this case, the lock-claw engaging frames 1c are provided at an equal pitch P in a lengthwise direction. Those are provided naturally at the equal pitch P lengthwise to the lock pieces 2b to be lock-joined with the lock-claw engaging frames 1c. Moreover, the lock-claw engaging frames 1c of the protector body 1 and the lock pieces 2b of the lid 2 are provided in opposite positioned to each other with respect to a widthwise direction X.
Accordingly, even in case the lid 2 is covered incorrectly widthwise onto the protector body 1 as shown in FIG. 7, the lock claws 2a of lid 2 can be lock-joined with the lock-claw engaging frames 1c of protector body 1. However, when the lid 2 inverse widthwise, the vehicle-engaging bracket 3 in an incorrect mount position shown in FIG. 7 is directed upward X2 relative to the positioning of the vehicle-engaging bracket 3 directed downward X1 in the regular mount position shown in FIG. 7.
Accordingly, when fixing the protector onto a vehicle body, the bolt hole in the vehicle-engaging bracket 3 does not position on a vehicle panel side, posing a problem that the protector is not to be fixed on the vehicle panel.